The federal judge considering what antitrust sanctions should apply against Microsoft Corp. expressed grave doubts on Friday about the enforcement mechanism proposed by nine states. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly criticized as "odd" and "unusual" the states' proposal that would direct future complaints against Microsoft to a court-appointed "special master," rather than the U.S. Justice Department. "Obviously I have some concerns about it, as to how it would work," Kollar-Kotelly said after bombarding a states' attorney with critical questions about the plan.
She reminded Shenefield that an appeals court had struck down a similar "special master" arrangement in a dispute over a Microsoft antitrust agreement with the government that was the prelude to the current case.
"This circuit has some very definite views about the use of special masters," Kollar-Kotelly said. The judge went on to question why the states wanted the federal government to "abdicate" its enforcement role by handing oversight to the special master. And she criticized a provision in their plan that would allow disgruntled companies to take their complaints directly to court in many cases. "Their interests may not be compatible, frankly, with the interests of the (government)," Kollar-Kotelly said.
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly gave Microsoft a stern warning Friday to keep its promise to abide by antitrust penalties expected later this year. Kollar-Kotelly said she accepts Microsoft's assurance, but that she will be watching. "These are the kinds of things that will come back to haunt you if you don't, because I have a memory of all these statements," she said. Kollar-Kotelly's decision on the entire case is expected in late summer. Much of the testimony Friday, the last day of hearings, centered around how much of Kollar-Kotelly's time will be taken up by the ongoing battle between Microsoft and the states. As the trial judge in charge of the case, Kollar-Kotelly will be responsible for disputes over the life of her decree. The states want a 10-year term, whereas Microsoft and the federal government agreed on five years in their settlement last year.
It seems as though certain IT vendors have a fondness for the courtroom. Microsoft has spent most of the last few years going backwards and forwards in an attempt to defend itself against the same old monopolistic allegations. The last 9 months have seen HP execs spend a fair amount of time in the courthouse defending the company's actions in the Compaq acquisition. Both companies are now coming under scrutiny of the European Union for antitrust issues.
Whilst the new HP is trying to shake off its 'printing' image for that of a professional services organisation, it is bizarre that the EU is investigating the company for anti-trust in the ink cartridges market. The printer and imaging division of HP makes nearly half of the group's revenues and supplies, such as printer cartridges, accounts for more than half of that division's sales. The issue the EU is contemplating is whether companies such as HP are forcing users to buy own-brand consumables rather than cheaper equivalents.
Deutsche Telekom wants to team up with Microsoft. Deutsche Telekom has offered Microsoft a 25 per cent stake in its T-Online internet service provider (ISP) business, according to Germany's Capital magazine, which reported that the telco wanted the tie-up to boost its share price. If the deal goes ahead it would create a powerful anti-AOL alliance. T-Online is the biggest ISP in Europe. The two companies are already working on next-generation mobile phone services, in readiness for the day when the fast data services finally arrive in Europe.
At the moment Microsoft's .Net is the only fully functioning web services offering on the market. The Liberty Alliance has not yet released its open source web services plan. Infuzer's Ruston predicted: "Over the next 18 months I do think .Net will continue to gain market share at the expense of Java." If Governor wanted to roll out a large scale transactional system for a finance department or customer services he said he would think about maturity of language and choose Java. If he wanted to create something sexy and powerful he said he would go for Microsoft's C# which can be teamed with its tightly integrated toolset, Visual Studio.Net.
Illuminata's Governor thinks Microsoft's C# will beat Java in the long run. He said: "Web services is a new model but it seems to be about integration. If the new integration is front end-based activity - and web services is, because it's all about orchestration - Microsoft will benefit because C# is stronger at the front end whereas Java is better at the back, transactional end."
Microsoft announced Thursday that it has signed an exclusive publishing deal with Sigil Games Online, a development studio run by two of the creators of the popular online game "EverQuest." While Microsoft didn't offer any information on upcoming products, the move is seen as a signal of Microsoft's growing interest in subscription-based online games, an emerging but profitable business segment. Sony's "EverQuest" is one of the biggest successes yet, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers paying $13 a month to access the game's virtual world.
Dell announced a new rack-mount server Monday that will be the first of its slim, two-processor systems to ship with Intel's Xeon chips. The PowerEdge 2650 takes up 2U (3.5 inches) of rack space and starts at $2,399 without an operating system but with one 1.8GHz Xeon processor, 256MB of memory, and an 18GB hard drive. A high-end version of the system with Microsoft's Windows 2000 server operating system, dual 2.4GHz Xeons, 6GB of DDR SDRAM (double data rate synchronous dynamic RAM) and five 36GB hard drives is priced at $16,427, said Darrel Ward, senior manager of rack servers at Dell. The servers also ship with Dell's remote-access technology and OpenManage management software. Dell will sell the PowerEdge 2650 with Windows 2000 Server, Windows 200 Advanced Server and others.
As Intell this month marks the one-year anniversary of the debut of its first 64-bit Itanium processor, the chip maker is sharpening its aim on Sun's server install base, intent on toppling Sun's UltraSparc processor fortunes. Intel's aggression toward Sun for stubbornly remaining the only non-Intel computer maker in the industry surfaced only a few weeks ago at Intel's Spring Analyst Meeting at the company's headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif. Intel executives took open shots at Sun, charging, among other things, that Sun was losing billions of dollars to Intel because customers were choosing Intel's less-expensive commodity-grade processors over Sun's pricier, RISC-based chips.
Citrix's software allows corporations to port Windows and other operating systems to "thin clients" over a network. It works on top of Microsoft's Window Terminal Services (WTS) product, which is part of Windows 2000.
Citrix has posted strong financial results in the past few quarters, thanks in part to its relationship with Microsoft. But rumors have surfaced that Microsoft might try to find a way around using Citrix's technology in the future, either by buying a start-up or developing its own version. Thursday's announcement makes that seem even likelier.
A federal judge on Wednesday sharply questioned attorneys on both sides of the Microsoft Corp. antitrust case, still weighing how far-reaching sanctions against the software giant should be. U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly quizzed lawyers in the landmark case about whether she should impose sanctions on Microsoft that cover products like handheld computers and network servers, and whether she should order the company to make features of its Windows operating system removable. Kollar-Kotelly challenged an attorney for nine states pressing for strong sanctions against Microsoft to defend their far-reaching demands, including one that would require Microsoft to offer a version of Windows that can have features stripped out and replaced by rival software.